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Topic: Toy Fair 2013 (Read 5630 times)

I'm not going to complain about product that's geared towards a target market other than collectors. It's simply not worth the effort. Most of what we've seen from the UK Toy Fair looks pretty disposable. The 12" Anakin to Vader? Meh. I got the ROTS version of that back in 2005, and it was much better.

I'm still in wait and see mode, because we're not going to see anything for the 3.75" figure system until Toy Fair happens in New York. Kudos to Jedi News for the coverage, but Hasbro has been very calculated in how they release news & images of the new line for the past several years.

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With the 3D's kind of in rapid succession, I'd have preferred something a little more iconic and less kiddy looking I guess, but as always card art is about the last thing I usually give two ***** about. If the figure sucks, it could have card art that could hang in a museum it's so nice, but it'll still be a ****** product.

Here's a Q "I was reading that Iron Man figures were going to be 6:00, and have less articulation. Is this the way that SW is going?"

Personally, if they did this with style, like the Bespin Luke fro the recent Battle Pack, I'd be ok with it. If they made the main line, simpler, and more cost effective, and then 20-25 Vintage style figures a year, I think that would be good.

I saw someone mention the Iron Man 3 figures earlier in this thread (with the lower articulation), and I have to say that our local Target put out a case of the new Ultimate Spider-Man figures (based on the cartoon), and these are that way as well. I think I read somewhere that the Avengers and Spidey movie lines would be slowly morphing into animated lines in non-movie years and follow their respective cartoons. The Spidey figures I saw had head, ball shoulder, and regular hip articulation, and that was it. They were priced at $5.99.

Now, I don't know if this is what we'll see from all Hasbro's lines or not, but like Speedermike mentioned, I wouldn't mind seeing SW do this and have a Vintage (or Vintage-like) collector line limited to 25 figures/year or so. Hasbro really seems to like having multiple figures lines (although I miss the days of one, or at least one with just "Collection 1 or Collection 2"), and this way they could bring the price down a bit on the "kid targeted" figures. I'm ok with that. I really think they are realizing that for the fewer and fewer kids that even care about action figures over video games, they are starting to price those kids/parents out of them at $10 each. Something has to bring them back into a more normal range. I don't think that we'll see the quality we've been used to for much less though, perhaps with upcoming movie blitzes? I know these Spidey figures I saw, while fine for kids toys, are definitely not what most collectors are looking for.

It is funny. I've really come to enjoy the super articulated figures (or at least 10 or so joints), but when I was buying POTF2 or POTJ figures I don't remember being super bummed at the articulation back then either. I don't necessarily want things to go back to those levels, but it was easier to collect (especially collect on a budget) at $5-6 a figure, with 25-30 figures a year (and maybe 4-5 ships, as exclusives). Either that, or better utilize their library of "ultimate" versions of the main characters/troops that they already have. It has to be cheaper to use those, right? And maybe bring the price down.

Toy Fair should be interesting, in some way or another. I don't think we'll see much (or at least much that hasn't already been leaked), but it would be nice to get a better idea of the direction retail action figure lines are taking. I pay attention primarily to Star Wars and Marvel, and it seems like the "collector" portions of those lines are really in flux - with a lot of odd decisions lately. Our daughter has been pretty into the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle show and toy line, and we've been able to get her those figures for around $7-8 for the most part, with a nice assortment of bad guys/supporting characters, and they'll even have three playsets that are pretty nifty by the end of this year (she got the large Turtle lair set for Christmas from grandparents, and it is pretty nice). Anyways, we know what can be done - but it will be interesting to see what is done. It seems like action figures are getting more and more "niche" every year, and more focus being put on movie (or cartoon) lines in a sort of flavor of the year fashion.

Either that, or better utilize their library of "ultimate" versions of the main characters/troops that they already have. It has to be cheaper to use those, right? And maybe bring the price down.

According to the Hasbro folks, it is cheaper to tool up an all new figure with 6 different parts than to churn out existing figures with twice that many. That's why the GI JOE Retaliation vehicles had 5 point articulated figures instead of the usual repaint/kitbashed driver figures fans came to expect from that brand.

There's a problem with Star Wars as a cheap line. Spider-Man and Iron Man can be recolored ad naseum, so the same molds can and will be used repeatedly. That's something Star Wars can't get away with too much. Night Strike Luke Skywalker and Jungle Camo Vader seem unlikely to be approved by Lucasfilm.

All the more reason for them however to utilize good army builder molds more often and add spice it up with head variants, weathering, etc. They used to be a lot better with that sort of thing than they have been the past couple years.

Man, what a turn around. Just a few weeks ago, it was sounding like Hasbro might not have anything to show for Star Wars... but now we'll probably at least get:

- some 5POA Movie Heroes figures for kids- a wave or two of Vintage Collection er, Black Series 3.75" figures (though they may end up just being pulled from the cancelled Droid Factory figures)- hard copies of the Black Series 6" figures, with maybe a slideshow peek at Wave 2?

I bet that the new Black Series will be the featured items at Toy Fair. Kind of a shame that the 3 3/4" figures are kind of in limbo right now, but the Black Series figures sure seem cool. And maybe Hasbro will also preview the 3 3/4" Black Series figures as well.

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